Free Republic

Finland has broken new ground as the inaugural nation to commence bird flu vaccinations for human beings, as divulged by health officials this Tuesday.The forward-thinking Nordic nation will make preemptive bird flu vaccines available from next week to specific workers who are exposed to animals. Finland secured vaccines for 10,000 individuals, with each person receiving two doses. This purchase forms part of an expansive EU procurement of up to 40 million doses shared amongst 15 countries.CSL Seqirus, the Australian vaccine manufacturer behind these doses, confirmed to Reuters that Finland holds the honour of being the first nation to implement this...

A farmworker in Michigan is the second person to become infected with the current H5N1 bird flu virus. The farmworker had mild symptoms and has since recovered, local health officials said. According to Michigan’s chief medical executive, Natasha Bagdasarian, the current health risk to the public remains low, but the virus has circulated in dairy and poultry farms across the country this spring. Here’s what we know about the bird flu infections.

Mainstream media has been covering bird flu incessantly for weeks. It has been compared to COVID-19 and even the Bubonic plague with talking head “doctors” practically declaring it to be the next pandemic. Whether their concern is real or part of an election year operation is debatable, but what has become crystal clear is that Americans are viewing the sudden bird flu attention from government agencies as a reason to stock up on long-term storage beef. “The beef industry is undeniably under attack,” said JD Rucker, CEO of Prepper All-Naturals. “Whatever risk, if any, that bird flu poses to cattle...

President Biden said Friday that he had stayed up until at least 2 a.m. watching Fox News analysis of his State of the Union speech to Congress — before saying he was disappointed seeing vulgar protest signs and children making obscene gestures at him when he travels. “I was watching on television last night, about two in the morning, after we got back to the house,” Biden said at a Philadelphia-area campaign rally, his first public address since his annual congressional appearance. “I had the TV on and there was a Fox News commentator saying, ‘You know, Biden is changing...

Is she a bird whisperer? When an unexpected 'visitor' wreaked havoc in a house late at night, one maid went beyond the call of duty to save the day. A video shared by TikTok user Pakalupap1t00 on Thursday (Feb 15) showed his family ducking for cover as a bird flew around their flat. While his dad "hid inside a room" and his mother, sister and brother screamed in fear, their domestic helper appeared to be unfazed. "It's just a bird," she quipped as she tried to catch the bird. After 'exploring' various areas of the flat, the bird took a...

The US government is spending $1million of American taxpayer money to fund gain-of-function experiments on dangerous bird flu viruses in collaboration with Chinese scientists. The research involves infecting ducks and geese with different strains to make them more transmissible and infectious, and study the viruses' potential to 'jump into mammalian hosts,' according to the research documents. It is being funded through the US Department of Agriculture and will take place at sites in Georgia, Beijing and Edinburgh in Scotland. It comes despite such research being restricted in 2022 and growing concerns that dubious Chinese research may have started the Covid...

Bird, once valued at $2.5 billion by investors, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Florida federal court Wednesday. In a release, Bird said it will use the bankruptcy proceeding to facilitate a sale of its assets, which it expects to complete within the next 90 to 120 days. Bird’s electric scooters are touted as an environmentally friendly alternative to driving and other forms of public transit. ... Bird’s bankruptcy proceedings come after the New York Stock Exchange delisted the company in September. Bird failed to comply with the exchange’s requirements after it was unable to keep its market capitalization...

The endangered southern cassowary, a giant flightless bird native to Australia and New Guinea, was spotted by onlookers on Oct. 31 along the shores of Bingil Bay in the Australian state of Queensland, according to the local government. Beachgoers in Australia last month initially thought it was a turtle or a shark’s dorsal fin in the ocean. But upon closer inspection, they were stunned to see a cassowary – sometimes dubbed "the world’s most dangerous bird" – emerge from the ocean and shake itself off. The endangered southern cassowary, a giant flightless bird native to Australia and New Guinea, was...

The struggle to prove the majestic bird still exists has obsessed believers and exasperated doubters for a century. Now photographer Bobby Harrison is racing to document the species once and for all before the government declares it extinct The bird has many names, often divinely inspired: the Lord God Bird, the Lazarus Bird, the Ghost Bird, the Grail Bird. Bobby Harrison is a religious man, but he doesn’t like any of them. He prefers to call it what it is: an ivory-billed woodpecker. “Well,” he says with a shrug, “it is just a bird, after all.” That might seem like...

That rapidly growing wind power development kills birds in ever increasing numbers is clear. That it also kills whales and other marine mammals is becoming clear. So the policy question is how much killing is enough, before we stop killing more? This question seems not to be asked. The stampede to build huge amounts of wind power, on land and at sea, is potentially devastating to a great many species. Our focus has been on the growing threat to whales and other marine mammals from offshore industrial wind. But this is just part of a much deeper pattern of runaway...

Following massive progress on the Woolly Mammoth and Tasmanian tiger, Colossal launches Avian Genomics Group to continue groundbreaking de-extinction pursuits Dr. Beth Shapiro, Ph.D. (Lead Paleogeneticist and Colossal Scientific Advisory Board Member) and Ben Lamm (Colossal Co-Founder and CEO). Image courtesy of Colossal Biosciences. ********************************************************** DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Colossal Biosciences, the world’s first de-extinction company, has today announced an oversubscribed $150M Series B financing led by United States Innovative Technology Fund (“USIT”), with participation from Breyer Capital, WestRiver Group, Bob Nelsen, Animal Capital, Victor Vescovo, In-Q-Tel, Animoca Brands, Peak 6, BOLD Capital, and Jazz Ventures, among others. Since launching in September 2021,...

A highly infectious and deadly strain of avian influenza virus has infected tens of millions of poultry birds across Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. But scientists are particularly concerned about the unprecedented spread in wild birds — outbreaks pose a significant risk to vulnerable species, are hard to contain and increase the opportunity for the virus to spill over into people. Since October, the H5N1 strain has caused nearly 3,000 outbreaks in poultry in dozens of countries. More than 77 million birds have been culled to curb the spread of the virus, which almost always causes severe disease or...

A Pennsylvania family's pet cockatiel was identified after three years on the loose thanks to the bird's love for a classic TV theme song. Louise Duncan said she knew the bird she found on the front porch of Christ United Methodist Church in Lancaster County was not a native species. "I knew it was not a normal bird that comes by because it had an orange or yellow plume," Duncan told WGAL-TV. Duncan and Pastor Roseann Goldberg-Taylor wrangled the bird into a box and contacted local animal rescue group ORCA. ORCA posted photos of the bird on Facebook, and soon...

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday received an unwelcomed surprise in Iowa when a bird appeared to poop on his suit as he delivered his speech on inflation and the state of the American economy. According to a viral video on social media, Mr Biden was unveiling plans to trim gas prices and “putting rural America at the centre of our efforts to build a future that's made in America” when a white substance fell on his jacket - right above his American flag pin. “It's about being made in America,” the US President said moments prior to the poop...

WATCH: Bird poops on Joe Biden during speech.

Companies like Bird and Lime allow able-bodied people to unlock a set of wheels with their smartphones. In cities around the country, you’ll see millennials scooting through town at speeds of up to 15 mph on their scooter rental. Riders pay $1 to start, then 15 cents per minute to ride—a small price to pay for convenient short-distance transportation. Because the scooters are dockless, riders abandon them as soon as they reach their destination. These next-gen “Bird droppings” litter America’s sidewalks and frequently block wheelchair users’ independence and freedom of movement.

Today, being "birdbrained" means forgetting where you left your keys or wallet. But 66 million years ago, it may have meant the difference between life and death—and may help explain why birds are the only dinosaurs left on Earth. Research on a newly discovered bird fossil led by The University of Texas at Austin found that a unique brain shape may be why the ancestors of living birds survived the mass extinction that claimed all other known dinosaurs. "Living birds have brains more complex than any known animals except mammals," said lead investigator Christopher Torres, who conducted the research while...

Got a bird feeder? Take it down.That’s the advice of the Audubon Society, the PA Game Commission, the Wildlife Futures Program (WFP) at The University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine, and the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education (SCEE). And if you think their recommendations are for the birds, you’re right.A mysterious illness has been ravaging songbird populations in the eastern United States. Thousands of afflicted birds have been manifesting crusty discharge from swollen eyes and signs of neurologic impairment (erratic flight, trouble walking, tremors). Rehabbers are helpless; the prognosis is death.First observed in the DC area in May and...

The man helped himself to a shower and a pair of Sabz’s shorts. The owner of the home confronted the man who kept claiming the house was his and telling Sabz he would call the police. He is seen in the home’s Ring camera footage calmly walking around, sitting on the couch and relaxing. The intruder also killed two of their beloved pet birds with his bare hands... Police acted quickly and arrested the intruder.

When it comes to the public’s perception of female basketball players versus their soccer counterparts, Seattle Storm guard Sue Bird believes she knows why support sways one way over the other. “To be blunt it’s the demographic of who’s playing. Women’s soccer players generally are cute little white girls while WNBA players, we’re all shapes and sizes: a lot of Black, gay, tall women. There’s maybe an intimidation factor and people are quick to judge it and put it down,” Bird told CNN in an interview Sunday.